


I'm Going Back to the Start

by reciprocityfic (orphan_account)



Category: Dancing with the Stars (US) RPF, Maksyl - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Maksyl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 03:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3794926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/reciprocityfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quiet moment between Maks and Meryl during the taping of DWTS' 10th Anniversary Special.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Going Back to the Start

**Author's Note:**

> In honor of today's taping of the anniversary show!
> 
> Love and thanks to you all, xo.

She finds him sitting in the middle of the dancefloor amidst the bustle of dress rehearsals.

It’s been awhile since they’ve been in the Dancing with the Stars ballroom together to perform; of course, there was that time last September, but that wasn’t to dance. That was to watch, and even then, she hadn’t paid much attention to the contestants.  Rather, she had spent a majority of the night observing  _him_ , speaking with him, touching him, and enjoying his presence.  She hadn’t seen him in what seemed like forever, and she had missed him  _so much_.

But that was then, and this is now.  And it is  _strange_ , being here with him, dancing on the show again, where they met, where everything started.  She almost would feel transported back in time to a year ago, if so much hadn’t happened since.  If there wasn’t such a gaping dichotomy between where they were then and where they are now.

She walks up behind him slowly, sitting down beside him on the hard floor and crossing her legs.

“Hi,” she softly squeaks.

“Hello, princess.”

She waits for a moment to see if he’ll explain himself; he doesn’t.

“What are you doing?” she prods gently.

He laughs once, looks at her with a sideways smile.

“Don’t you remember?”

She glances around the room.

“Well, I remember a lot of things, but what you’re doing specifically, no.  I don’t.”

Pain flashes in his eyes just briefly before he blinks and it is gone, replaced with a blank, slightly aloof expression that has colored his features often lately, when they’ve interacted.

“This was – “

His voice breaks, and he looks away before continuing his answer.

“The opening pose of our freestyle.  It was here. That dance started here”.

“Oh.”

As soon as he says it, she  _remembers_.  A rush of memories of that dance and that night and that week and that show flood her mind, and all she can do is let out another breathless, “ _Oh_.”

“I just thought you would remember, is all,” he says curtly, and moves to get up before she puts her hand on his arm.

“Maks.”

He stares down at his feet.

“Maks, look at me.”

When he turns to her, the pain in his eyes is longer and more pronounced.  It breaks her heart.  Because she’ll always love him with everything she is, even if things don’t seem to be the same as they were before.

“I remember,” she assures him.  “I do.”

She’s telling the truth. She remembers every moment of that dance, and everything leading up to it, from when he played her the song and showed her the steps for the first time, the most tender look she had ever seen in his eyes. When he cradled her to him backstage, just before going on, and told her that this was for her, and how they both knew he had meant so much more than just this dance. The way his hands had wrapped around the back of her neck under the spotlight in their opening pose.  The feeling of his stubble against her upper lip. How happy she’d been when he held her afterwards.

How they had both thought they were going to end differently, then.

She remembers everything. And it  _breaks her heart_.

He gets up all of a sudden, and he reaches for her.  She takes his hand, but it doesn’t fit with his quite the same way anymore.  His skin is colder, their fingers don’t intertwine, his palm seems just a bit too big for her small hand to keep up with.

He leads her over a few feet, spinning her to face him.  He stares down at her with a glint in his eyes that makes her stomach twist.

“Then you remember what this is, right?”

She nods, gulping.

“This is the end.”

He smiles for a split second, and then gives the room a quick glance before bending down towards her, stopping a mere inch from her lips.

_Stop_ , she should yell at him.   _Things are different now.  Think about the other people in our lives. Think about how everything’s changed. It used to be like this, but it can’t be anymore._

But she stays silent, instead focusing on keeping her breath even.  And in spite of herself, almost automatically, she grabs the back of his neck, standing on her tiptoes to just-not-quite meet him.

It’s like they’re playing a game of Russian roulette, and all it would take is one wrong move, the littlest bump, to end everything.

And one thing about this pose, specifically, bothers her.

He voices her concern.

“Why doesn’t this feel any different?” he murmurs.  She can feel his stubble move against her skin as he speaks.

“I don’t know,” she whispers.

And maybe it would never feel any different.

And maybe they would never admit to themselves that they both knew why.


End file.
